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U.S. Open: Jelena Jankovic dawdling, Caroline Wozniacki hurrying

September 2, 2010 | 4:18
pm

Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki (pictured above) moved quickly into the third round of the U.S. Open on Thursday, posting a 6-0, 6-0 win over Kai-Chen Chang of Taipei in only 47 minutes. She'd won her first-round match over Chelsey Gullickson, 6-1, 6-1, in 61 minutes.

Wozniacki has had her status as the top-seeded player here questioned because she's never won a major tournament, but the 20-year-old from Denmark who is ranked No. 2 in the world behind the absent Serena Williams (recovering from foot surgery) and who finished second here last year, has played as well as any of the women so far.

"I'm feeling really good," Wozniacki said. "I feel confident. I feel like I can beat everybody on a good day."

It's still a long way away, and Wozniacki might first have to get past 14th-seeded Maria Sharapova in a highly anticipated possible fourth-round match, but waiting in the semifinals could be fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic.

Jankovic won her second-round match Thursday as well, but it was much more complicated. Jankovic beat Mirjana Lucic, 29, of Croatia, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, in a match that took just more than two hours. Jankovic also used every bit of her allotted time (schedule-wise) in the first round, beating Simona Halep, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, in 2:30.

Considered the best player to have not won a Grand Slam event (she did get to the finals here in 2008), Jankovic, 25, admitted her tennis so far has not been extraordinary. "I'm just glad I got through," she said. "It was another tough match for me. I have to pick it up, though. Every match I need to keep improving and picking up the level of my tennis. I'm working on it."

She also looked grumpy Thursday as she played on and on in the again-stifling heat. "I wish I could be more kind of happy out there," she said. "Especially when it's a tough match, things are not sometimes going the way you want them to."